President Jimmy Carter Blew Me a Kiss

Picture of the Day for 10/28/2010. Former president Jimmy Carter blew me a kiss today!

Here's how it happened. He was in town to sign copies of his new book, "White House Diary." I didn't even know about the event until a friend of mine from Florida (yes, I'm being cagey, and yes, you all know who that is) who is an autograph collector let me know about it and asked if I would attend and purchase three copies for him. He also shipped seven other Jimmy Carter books from his collection to get signed. I picked up one copy of Carter's book for myself and then my brother-in-law David dropped off a book from his personal library. So, I had a total of 12 books to get signed. I think I was just about the only person in the 1,500+ crowd to bring such a large stack of books because the clerks looked amazed. They even nudged President Carter and exclaimed, "she has 12 books!" I had observed he was pretty business-like and kept his head down while he signed books, but he looked up at that one. We smiled at each other and I said "I'm a big fan" to explain away the 12 books. That's when he blew me a kiss. Very cute! I'm delighted that I can say a president of the United States blew me a kiss!

This book signing was unlike any I've ever attended. It was a carefully orchestrated assembly line. I was near the end of the line which stretched a couple of blocks past the independent bookstore, The King's English, where the signing was being held. (See picture below).

President Carter is a swift signer (case in point- it only took him about 30 seconds to autograph all 12 of my books) so the line moved very quickly. Once you reached the president, you handed the books over to a clerk who then handed them to the president. He signed them and then a clerk handed them back to you and you were whisked to a spot a few feet away from the signing table where you could take one (and only) picture. The clerks pretty much told you when to snap the photo which is why I ended up with the mystery people in my picture. Carter wasn't engaging in conversation with the crowd, but he did know the people behind me in line and greeted them warmly. He even invited them to have a picture taken with him. It turns out these mystery people aren't so mysterious after all. When I showed the photo to my sister Paula and brother-in-law David, they said, "Oh, those are the Marriotts." They live in our neighborhood. I suspect they are affiliated with THE hotel Marriotts in order to merit such a warm reception.